PRESIDENCY ANSWERS SIMPLE QUESTION, LISTS COMPLETED, ONGOING PROJECTS BY PRESIDENT BUHARI

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From Left: Lauretta Onochie, answered simple question on Buhari's major projects completed and ongoing, and Femi Fani-Kayode, failed to answer simple question over who bankrolls his nationwide trips inspecting state governments' projects.

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By BASHIR ADEFAKA

Whereas some critics of the sitting administration in Nigeria who are mainly either members of the opposition would, rather than answer simple journalist’s questions, hurl insults, curses or abuses on the questioner, the Presidency proves to be different.

Instead, it takes question – even when not directly addressed to it – as normal and simply gives a quick and precise answer to same, just like it did to Mustapha Bulama, a cartoonist and journalist of Daily Trust Newspaper, who asked Twitter users to list major projects of President Muhammadu Buhari in five years, completed and ongoing.

Bulama said this list was needed by him to make cartoon presentations of the administration’s achievements since it came in 2015.

Although lists of verifiable achievements of the administration have since been coming into the public domain, thus making it needless the kind of poser by the journalist as he could get them only right from even his own bedroom, the Presidency brought a little out of the abundance in a swift response to the Twitter post.

It was Lauretta Onochie, digital and social media aide to the President, in her usual comportion like a striker on a football field, who took to her official Twitter handle on Monday, September 7 and listed few of the completed and ongoing projects of the Buhari government.

The DEFENDER recalls that recently Peoples Democratic Party’s chieftain and former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, took a Daily Trust journalist to the cleaners in Calabar, Cross River State capital calling him “very stupid” for asking him a simple question “who bankrolls your nationwide trips inspecting some state governments’ projects.”

Mustapha Bulama, the current challenger but this time of government, had sparked the yet another social media flare-up asking Twitter users to mention those major projects done by the Buhari-led government.

In a swift response, Onochie did not let the dust raised by that not-really-a-question but challenge to settle, when she gave a list of few among projects and infrastructure – completed and under construction – by the government.

The projects listed by Onochie are:

1. Rehabilitation of Sections 1 to 4 of the Enugu–Port Harcourt Expressway (Sukuk Bond) ongoing

2. Rehabilitation of Amansea–Enugu Border section of Onitsha-Enugu Expressway-Ongoing.

3. Rehabilitation of 18km critical stretch of Onitsha–Awka Road (ongoing).

4a. Construction of Second Niger Bridge: Completed design of the Approach Roads from Onitsha and Asaba; Award of Main Construction Contract to Julius Berger; and funding of the project by the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, PIDF.

4b. In August 2018 PIDF paid 33 billion Naira (US$90 million) to Julius Berger for the Second Niger Bridge project. (ongoing).

5. Rehabilitation of Arochukwu–Ohafia–Bende Road (ongoing)

6. Ariaria Market Electrification Project (The Federal Government is implementing its Energizing Economies Programme, which will bring stable and reliable electricity to all the 37,000 shops in Ariaria Market, by providing the Market with a gas-powered IPP).

7. Energizing Education Programme is being implemented in Fed Uni, Ebonyi and Nnamdi Azikwe Uni, Awka, Anambra. The Programme will provide these Universities with an Independent Power Plant, as well as upgrade existing distribution infrastructure, and also provide street-lighting.

8. Completed Ikot Ekpene – Alaoji – Ugwuaji Switching Station and Transmission Line.

9. Construction of Modern Medical Diagnostic Centre at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia (FMCU).

10. Completed Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum (contract originally awarded in 1996, abandoned at various times, Buhari Administration revived the project in 2016, and completed it in 2018).

11. Enyimba City Special Economic Zone: Definitive Agreements signed between Federal Government, Abia State Government and Enyimba City Development Company Limited on December 7, 2018 – (Ongoing).

12. Presidential Fertilizer Initiative – has led to the revival of the Ebonyi State Fertiliser and Chemical Company Limited (EFCCL), creating jobs and boosting the supply of fertilizer in the Southeast.

13. Social Investment Programme: 68,000 N-Power Beneficiaries across the 5 States of the South East; the School Feeding Programme has kicked off in all 5 States of the Southeast.

14. Pensions paid to Retired War-Affected (Ex-Biafran) Police: In 2017, the Buhari Administration paid 500 million Naira to clear pensions arrears that had not been paid since their presidential pardon in 2000.


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